Election Day Post-Mortem

Now, 24 hours later, the gravity of last night still hasn't really sunken in for me. Of course, it was the topic of conversation all day today - most classes spent a significant portion of the class period, if not all of it, discussing the presidential election, the in-limbo Senate races, and the various ballot initiatives (Arkansas, really?!?). Still, inauguration day is a couple months away...and my heart ached to be back home in DC last night as the returns were coming in, as much as I loved watching the historic event with my classmates.

While lots of people went to smaller viewing parties at friends' homes, a bunch of people also watched the night's events at school. We had fruit, cookies, lemon bars, and abundant bottled water to get us through...I added a couple bottles of Mountain Dew, since it had already been a pretty long day (full disclosure: I didn't have class till 1, but woke up at 8:30 naturally...still, I made myself stay in bed till 11:30 because I knew I'd be a wreck otherwise). Most people were constantly refreshing CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and fivethirtyeight on their laptops - one girl's dad apparently works at CBS News, so he gave us the "insider" word that they were going to call it for Obama a couple minutes before 11. (Of course, we fivethirtyeight addicts already knew that PA/VA/OH - or any combination of two of the above, or maybe even just one - was going to be enough).

Celebration ensued. Interestingly, a TON of the LLM students were in attendance, and they seemed near the most excited! The African-American crew was also elated, as expected...but honestly I think the general population at school didn't see this as a "race thing" as much as a "human/national progress" thing [there are, of course, conservatives at school - a vocal minority, to be sure - but by this point in the night, most of them had realized what McCain's camp knew weeks ago: the man is old, Palin's a wacko, and Grant Park wasn't set up to be the location of a concession speech; moreover, nobody can deny the historic nature of the win].

There was champagne! Corks were popping! One bottle was apparently brought back after a failed attempt to celebrate in 2004.

We watched the speeches. I was misty-eyed the whole time, but I was crying unabashedly by the end. Oh, to be in that park...but the energy was still electric.

We walked home, my roommates and I, only to find along the way that a ton of the university's students had assembled on Old Campus to celebrate. They didn't get the same treatment as some kids in Baltimore did (Don't tase me!), but they were jubillant nonetheless - the enthusiasm was undeniable as people ran to greet one another and be a part of the hysteria.

Today, our professors were tired (they stayed up, too!), we were tired, and we uniformly hadn't done our reading as assigned...but it didn't seem to matter. There were lots of Obama t-shirts and stickers and buttons on display - some worn by those just now returning from their posts doing voter protection in key battleground states. We speculated about possible SCOTUS nominations...we debated the dress...and we were shocked that Ms. Palin apparently knows less about Africa than I know about moose hunting...but in the end, we still have writing assignments to attend to, resumes to revise for the impending summer job search, and sourcecites to do...

***